The changes impacting the high-school experience are too numerous to list, but they give us new opportunities in our approach to blessing our schools. They need our help. The students need our help. My challenge to you is to pray and seek ways to be a true help, to be a true blessing—not just serving your agenda, but serving the school. Because of these changes, what can be done is wide open for God-blessed possibilities.

10 Ways to Bless Your School

Tip 1: Keep at it. It is vital that the administrators know who you are, including your goals for the school. When you offer your help, do what is asked of you. If nothing is asked of you in a reasonable amount of time, offer again. Make this meeting more than a one-time introduction or permission request to eat lunch with your youth. Begin a relationship with the administration, particularly an assistant principal. They tend not to be pulled in as many directions as principals are.

Tip 2: The principal is your pal. Do not believe what other youth workers have said about the administrators. It may or may not be true. Remember the administrator’s role to educate is overwhelming and hard enough to accomplish without an outsider trying to use the school to fulfill a personal agenda. You may find the administrator grateful and easy to work with because of how you approach him or her.

Tip 3: Credentials = Credibility. When you meet with the administration, take a copy of your police/FBI report for his or her files. That is just a courtesy in the modern world.

Tip 4: Be nice. Graciously thank all teachers and administrators for all their help and every little thing they had to do to make your visit to the school easier. While you may believe your presence, particularly as a Christian, is a good thing, in reality you are adding an unknown factor to the potentially volatile school balance.

Tip 5: Just do it. If you decide to volunteer, be consistent and reliable. This will speak volumes about you and your church—volumes.

Tip 6: Do the dirty work. Another responsibility of a lunchroom monitor is to pick up all the trash each lunch shift leaves behind. The teachers on duty will appreciate it if you will help clean up.

Tip 7: Join the staff. Some schools will offer you opportunities to help for pay, such as substitute teaching, coaching or bus driving. A solid commitment will be mandatory, and you will become a part of the school. If you have a check signed by the school board, your free speech will have legal limitations, but often over time and through relationships, you may earn wide parameters in your influence.

Tip 8: Clean up your act. It is preferable for the administration not to know your church kids because of referrals to the office for misconduct. Unfortunately, it seems a lot of youth workers had troubled school experiences, and they enjoy retelling the stories of their questionable past with great delight and hilarity. If you want to be of help to your school, this is not the message you want to send.

Tip 9: Ask first. If you want to hang your youth-ministry posters at the school, seek permission. This may seem like a no-brainer, but I have witnessed too many examples of youth workers freely hanging signs or posters while they were visiting a school, or their youth posted signs without permission. Everything displayed on school property must be approved by the administration, from students’ handmade posters to Army recruitment billboards.

Tip 10: Love everyone. Remember the overlooked ones. Do something special for the individuals who do not get a “teacher appreciation week.” This includes the janitors, security and ISS teacher who has to put up with all the students who got referrals and in-school suspensions. Let your youth ministry creativity bless these overlooked ones.